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Checkmates work a little bit different in the endgame. As the game goes on, pieces get traded off the board. This means, to deliver the knockout punch you need to know how to checkmate the enemy king with a single piece.


King + Queen

The King and Queen checkmate can look daunting at first, but once you learn the technique its extremely straightforward.


Essentially, your queen wants to jockey the enemy king to either side of the board, cutting it off to a single rank or file.


Then, your king will want to come and join the action, executing a Support Checkmate like we looked at previously.


Take a look at this video to see some examples.

King + Rook

The King and Rook checkmate is a little bit trickier, as not only do we need to cut the king off to a single file or rank, but we need to cut them off at the right moment too.


This is because a rook is slightly weaker than the queen, and cannot cover as many squares.


The technique is still rather straightforward though, and as long as you have a little bit of time you should be able to get it done.


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